US Senators slam H-1B visa programme

WASHINGTON: Top US lawmakers today slammed the popular H-1B visa programme and demanded strict action against companies abusing it to replace Americans with low-paid foreign workers, including from India.

"The sad reality is that - not only is there not a shortage of exceptionally qualified US workers - but across the country thousands of US workers are being replaced by foreign labour," SenatorJeff Sessions, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and The National Interest, said during a Congressional hearing.

Sessions refuted the claims of many US companies about shortage of skilled workers in the US and thus the need to bring in qualified foreign workers from India.

"The data shows that there is no shortage of highly qualified working American professionals, nor is there a shortage of American STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) college graduates every year," he said.

"We must ensure that current laws are not misused in ways that disadvantage American workers," he said.

Sharing the concerns Leo Perrero and several other, who were fired by Disney, Leahy said when immigrant visa programmes are misused to depress the wages of American workers and outsource jobs, all workers suffer.

"These programmes should be used to help create opportunities in America, not displace them, but the current allocation system does nothing to achieve that result," he said.

Testifying before the Senate Committee, Perrero, the fired Disney IT engineer, with teary eyes recollected the days when he was asked by Disney to train foreign skilled workers to replace him.

Perrero said there are many American IT workers who have been displaced by both H1-B visa holders, who are physically being flown in from foreign countries, as well as the growing use of foreign remote offshore workers.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin alleged that the top recipients of H-1B visas are foreign outsourcing companies which use loopholes in the law to disqualify qualified American workers and offshore American jobs.

This, he argued, is contrary to the very purpose for which H-1B visas was established.

"We did not intend for foreign outsourcing firms to exploit the program, to bring foreign workers to be trained by talented Americans workers in order to ship ultimately American jobs overseas," he said, adding that abuse of H-1B visa has gone worse in recent years.

However, Senator Thom Tillis from North Carolina differed from the views of his colleagues and argued that there is a huge dearth of qualified skilled workers in the US.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer made it clear at the hearing that he was holding out for a comprehensive immigration reform bill, similar to the 2013 bill that was approved by the Senate but not the House.

"It's hard to believe this bill was turned down," he said.

Schumer wanted to make sure that H-1B is not abused to the detriment of American workers.

"I know, I am not supposed to say this, but many Indian companies do not work in the spirit of H-1B. Now I will get a call from the Indian Ambassador, so be it. American jobs comes first to me. They (Indian companies) abuse it," he said.

"I want to increase the number of legitimate H-1B, but go after these abuses," Schumer said.